{"sf1_id":1718783,"sf2_id":"RnoaGDeX","title":"Ragnarok - XVI","author":"Rob MacWolf","words":1136,"posted_at":"2021-05-16T14:17:00.000Z","tags":["Epic","Iambic pentameter","Poetry","blank verse"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1718783-ragnarok-xvi","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/RnoaGDeX","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/b9/84/b984d4af-94af-499d-a684-9dcb998a3f01","description":"#17 of Ragnarok\n\nThe arrival of the Sulfur Carrier.","content":"\"Mean you to slay this?\" Varr said slowly, as\n\nThe Sulfur Carrier stretched, its knees below\n\nThe pit its impact had carved out, \"Do you\n\nYet say that this your sword shall cut down this\n\nColossus, berserker?\" Klau swallowed, and,\n\nWith his eyes to vasty foe fastened,\n\nSaid, \"Yes, I shall, although I can no more\n\nImagine how than I can fly.\" Shane snatched\n\nThe girl, who stared as fixedly as does\n\nThe sparrow at the adder at the dark\n\nArising form, though seeming without fear.\n\n\"Then do!\" he shouted, \"Strike it down! I will\n\nSee her to safety. I only ask that,\"\n\nThe Boxer grinned, \"you slay it not too swift\n\nBefore I can get back to use my fists.\"\n\nThen as the Sulfur Carrier drew back\n\nA hand crowned with obsidian claws, as\n\nIts shoulders' skin cracked up like drying mud\n\nAnd in the cracks glowed magma, as along\n\nIt's hunching back it bubbled like hot tar,\n\nShane dragged the girl away. He tossed her light\n\nTo Varr, who on his shoulders, like a horse,\n\nBore clinging, and they took off running for\n\nThe stairs. Shane fumbled on his gloves, looked back,\n\nSaw Klau the Berserker had drawn his sword\n\nBlack but bright, saw beyond a house-sized fist\n\nCome down upon the rampart's foundation,\n\nSo as he reached the top step, it buckled\n\nAnd tossed below his feet. They half-scrambled,\n\nHalf-jumped along the quaking, crumbling stair:\n\nThey could not have gone faster if they'd flown,\n\nAnd yet not fast enough. The tremor tore\n\nAsunder gaping rents in the cold earth\n\nBelow the wall. Through them the Soot poured in\n\nLike maggots not content to wait for death\n\nOf natural causes, and turned assassin,\n\nTheir weapons brandishing, their baleful stench,\n\nTheir rotted hissing smothering the air.\n\nAs is the rush of foam over the edge\n\nOf roaring cataract split into rags\n\nAnd drops, each willing with all of its heart\n\nTo outrun gravity, to reach the ground,\n\nMeets like a football rush the rush of air\n\nThat courses up the riverbed, so that\n\nThe weight and momentum of rivulet\n\nAnd spout are shattered by the updraft. Both\n\nChecked, twisted, broken, diverted, combined\n\nAnd turned to thrashing mist, not reconciled\n\nBut warring still twixt wind and water in\n\nItself, even as it rises and drifts\n\nLike cloud of dust above the battle's toil,\n\nSo did the Soot wave break upon the few\n\nWho but a moment gone in horror gaped\n\nAt wash of undead sunlight. Now they fought\n\nWith all the rage and savagery of him\n\nWho hope no more for victory, nor life\n\nFor himself or for anything he loves,\n\nWhose only comfort is that those who slay\n\nShall pay most dearly for the privilege.\n\nInto the furor Shane the Champion dropped\n\nLike leaf-speck from the brink of waterfall,\n\nAnd like a leaf speck he seemed vanished in\n\nThe churning chaos waves of Soot and strife\n\nBut as the leaf will float, and break the waves\n\nAnd whirl through eddies toward the smoother stream,\n\nSo did the boxer break the waves of Soot\n\nWith blows like heavy balls toppling tenpins,\n\nSo did he circle through the melee, to\n\nRain crushing fists on rotten bone and rust,\n\nEach step won with the slaughter of one foe\n\nAnd each toward the mountain pass. Behind\n\nCame Varr, sword whirling cleaving undead head\n\nFrom smolder-hissing body, and the girl\n\nUpon his shoulders piggyback, still looking grave,\n\nHeedless seeming of carnage all about,\n\nUp at the Sulfur Carrier, who moved not\n\nNow that the wall was ruins. No ranks here.\n\nNo lines to hold, advance, or to retreat.\n\nNo time for discipline, only for death.\n\nNo time for tactics, only for each breath\n\nDrawn red and furious, only the ache\n\nOf muscles no more heeding ache, only\n\nThe split second to strike down one more foe\n\nOr be struck down yourself, and then the next,\n\nAnd then the next, and then the next. Shane struck.\n\nAnd Shane was not struck down. Others had not\n\nHis fortune or fair fate. Ulf the Black-Brow\n\nWent, as a mighty tree is overwhelmed\n\nBy caustic lava blast, beneath a heap\n\nOf Soot both still, if not living, moving,\n\nAnd those who moved no more, and there was crushed.\n\nDown went Cuan Holyspear, with both the head\n\nAnd butt of his stout shaft still striking, like\n\nA whirlwind, even as he toppled with\n\nHis lifeblood drooping. Down went Rolf Quick-Rage,\n\nIn mid charge, slain Soot flying in his wake\n\nAs do raindrops that hit the windshield; though\n\nEach is scattered, already they have fogged\n\nThe vision, already they have soaked through\n\nThe brakes, already the crash can't be stopped,\n\nAnd though his momentum still slew them, Rolf\n\nThe Quick-Rage himself already was slain.\n\nDown went Gor Battle-Hungry, now sated.\n\nDown went Dar Storm-Braver, under the storm.\n\nDown went Vyze Fighter-of-Tides, toppled now\n\nBy tide too heavy. All about was death\n\nAnd double death. And through it waded Shane\n\nAs men might wade through flooded streets, and Varr\n\nCarried the girl as one carries heirlooms\n\nFrom floodwaters salvaged. Now only yards,\n\nNow only feet, now only few inches\n\nCame between them and stairs to safety. Shane,\n\nRushed bullike, knocking Soot flat to both sides\n\nWith both fists, forehead, and wound-heedless chest,\n\nThen whirled upon the lowest stair, to hold\n\nThe ashen undead off, and buy some time\n\nFor Varr to bear the girl to safety, but\n\nThe Soot so pressed them that the two stood back\n\nTo back, the girl between, fighting on all\n\nAngles. The stairs they took sideways. They slew\n\nAs many with the fall as with the fight.\n\nThe din behind them dimmed. The battle grew\n\nWith distance indistinct. No more the sole\n\nAnd individual tragedies they heard.\n\nOne blow was blended with the next, that rode\n\nOn top, like letters in a cursive hand,\n\nUntil there was no sound of single sword,\n\nOnly a roiling, rolling sea of noise.\n\nThe last they saw, ere they slammed fast the door\n\nTo the long council hall, and barred it shut,\n\nWas Klau, still on the remnant of the wall,\n\nLike plaster saint upon a pillar set,\n\nAnd fighting furiously the dark Soot\n\nThat swarmed like cockroaches up the rough sides.\n\nThe Black Sword was as a lawnmower's blade,\n\nIn every place equally, cleaving all\n\nInstantly, grinding all effortlessly,\n\nSo all around the ruin dead Soot fell\n\nAnd, as they fell, resolved to ash, like slow\n\nBlack snowflakes on the sulfur-colored night.\n\nSo small with distance was the scene, that sound\n\nWas absent, and the Soot seemed shrunk\n\nTo smaller than the god of fury whose\n\nSword oversized ripped down their multitude.\n\nBeyond, and vaster far than both, there smiled\n\nThe Sulfur Carrier. The doors swung shut.\n\nAnd Shane the Champion could see no more.\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"Ragnarok","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1718548-ragnarok-xv.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1719157-ragnarok-xvii.json"}}